Just when it looked like the New York Giants' season from hell couldn't get any worse, it did. Not only did the Giants get thrashed 30-6 on the road in Las Vegas by the Raiders, but Daniel Jones suffered a torn ACL in that game. He will miss the rest of the season and potentially parts of next season as well. As for the game, things went about as poorly as possible for the Giants. Jones and third-string quarterback Tommy DeVito, thrust into action thanks to injuries to Jones and backup Tyrod Taylor, were sacked a combined eight times.
This was the fifth straight game the Giants have failed to exceed 10 points. At 2-7 without their starting quarterback, their season looks over already. Who is to blame for this loss and this poor stretch of play? There are a few candidates.
Offensive line struggled mightily
As mentioned earlier, the New York Giants' offensive line gave up eight sacks to the Raiders yesterday. That is not a one-off. Giants quarterbacks have been sacked 49 times this season, which leads the entire NFL. The only team in their atmosphere in sacks taken on the year is the Washington Commanders with 44, who are mainly there because of quarterback Sam Howell's propensity to hold the ball. The next team after those two are the Chicago Bears with 30. The Bears are allowing roughly three and a third sacks per game; the Giants are giving up 5.4 of them.
Advanced metrics don't paint the Giants' offensive line in a very positive light. ESPN has metrics for the trenches like pass rush win rate and pass block win rate, which essentially measures how frequently a team or player wins their battle on the trenches for certain plays. As one would imagine, the Giants' offensive line has not held up very well in those metrics. They rank 28th in pass block win rate and 26th in run block win rate. Not only is that bad, but it is untenable for any quarterback.
In the Giants' defense, they were without their starting left tackle Andrew Thomas for all but one game this season, and that was the season opener against the Dallas Cowboys. He returned in this game, but starting right tackle Evan Neal, who has struggled mightily this season, got injured in this game too. Without a reliable offensive line, it is hard to get anything going on offense. That was the case for the Giants in this game.
Injuries piling up
Daniel Jones' torn ACL and Andrew Thomas' hamstring injury have already been touched on, but that isn't even scratching the surface of the injuries the Giants have dealt with this season. Backup Tyrod Taylor hurt his ribs a week ago against the New York Jets and was placed on injured reserve a few days later. He might not play again this season. And he was only playing because Daniel Jones had missed three games before returning for this game, only to tear his ACL.
Darren Waller dealt with a nagging hamstring injury for almost all of last season when he was with the Raiders and again during training camp as a Giant. He once again pulled his hamstring last week and he was also placed on injured reserve. The Giants brought him in to be their alpha target earner in this offseason; he exceeded 50 yards in only three of eight games played this season, had more than four receptions in only four games this season, and scored only one touchdown.
In addition to those injuries, Saquon Barkley missed three games. The Giants just haven't had a chance to field their full offensive arsenal once this season. That was once again the case against the Raiders. Sometimes, this just happens. It's unfortunate that the Giants were the team this season to get completely decimated by injuries.
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